


Still I Do Believe That It Can Last

by Lalalli



Series: What Is This Feeling? [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Engagement, F/M, Fluff, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-28
Updated: 2020-02-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:54:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22942105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lalalli/pseuds/Lalalli
Summary: “You know, I was looking at my calendar and I noticed that February 29 falls on a Saturday,” Aunt Vivian tells them.ORThree years ago, Fitz made up a story to get pressure off Jemma's back. He never thought he’d be expected to follow through.
Relationships: Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons
Series: What Is This Feeling? [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1648762
Comments: 8
Kudos: 100





	Still I Do Believe That It Can Last

**Author's Note:**

> Definitely go and read Feeling Fervid as a Flame before you read this one, otherwise it might not make sense.
> 
> I don’t think I’ve ever written Fitzsimmons as an established relationship before. This is so outside my comfort zone.

_November 28, 2019_

It’s not that Fitz has anything _against_ Thanksgiving, per se. Its more that he doesn’t really _get_ Thanksgiving. He’s always down for huge meals and family bonding and all that, but to him it seems a bit like Americans got too impatient for Christmas and decided to have an extra one a month early, but with more colonialism and less presents. 

He never celebrated it when he was at university, but remembers it fondly as that long weekend once a year when he and Jemma took a break from pretending to hate each other and hung out because literally everyone else left campus. They made a tradition of ordering pizza and binge-watching classic holiday movies like Gremlins and Die Hard.

His first year rooming with Hunter, Fitz had actually spent some time deliberating whether he should invite him to his and Jemma’s Thanksgiving festivities, but then Bobbi and Daisy had teamed up to organize a Friendsgiving, which became a tradition they participated in every year up til now.

Thanksgiving had always been a holiday to spend with friends. After all, it’s not like either of their families celebrated it. But then Jemma’s cousin Anna and her preposterously wealthy American husband moved into their new mansion and decided that they wanted to host Thanksgiving dinner.

It’s definitely not a hardship or anything. Fitz was fairly enthusiastic about it right from the start, and even more so after he found out that they had hired that Queer Eye chef guy to prepare what was sure to be a feast.

Before they started “dating”, Jemma complained constantly about being stuck at the “kids table” during every family gathering, even though she was older than cousins who got to sit with the adults because they were in relationships. Fitz wasn’t sure why she would complain about that when she also complained about all the older relatives constantly nagging her about marriage and her rapidly decaying uterus - wouldn’t sitting at the kids table help her to avoid all that? 

At any rate, now that she and Fitz are in a long-term relationship, she’s been welcomed at the adult table, with all the gossip and nagging that entails.

“You know, I was looking at my calendar and I noticed that February 29 falls on a Saturday next year,” Aunt Vivian tells them.

At first, Fitz just registers it as a piece of random trivia. “Oh, is it?” He’s unsure of how else to respond. There’s no reason why that should mean anything to Fitz. 

Aunt Vivian frowns. “Are you behind on mailing out the invitations or am I just not invited?”

“Invited to what?” 

“The wedding, of course.”

Fitz chokes on his cranberry sauce. Jemma pats his back.

It’s not like he’s kept track of every bullshit story he told Jemma’s relatives over the years (with Jemma’s approval and gleeful encouragement). He’s pretty sure he might’ve told them about an elaborate gender reveal party they threw for Bobby Fisher, the spawn of Finneas, their imaginary goldfish. But it figures that this is the one that has come back around to bite them in the ass.

“Sorry,” he whispers to Jemma later, while everyone else is preoccupied with pie. “I thought I was buying you at least a decade.”

Jemma shakes her head in mock disappointment. “That’s what you get for coming up with your lies on the spot. I keep telling you, preparation is key.”

Fitz nudges her shoulder with his. “Well, I didn’t see _you_ planning our fake wedding. One of us had to do it.”

Jemma leans up to kiss his cheek before patting his other one in a patronizing manner. “You do know how I love when you take initiative.”

The thing is, it’s not like Fitz is _opposed_ to marrying Jemma. Quite the opposite. And February 29 seems like as good a day as any to have a wedding.

On the other hand, getting married on February 29 seems dishonest, in a way. As if they’re maintaining a lie. 

And there’s the not-so-minor detail that Fitz hasn’t actually _proposed_ to Jemma yet. Not that he’s worried about it. He knows she’s going to say yes. They’re on the same page.

About that part, at least.

“Do you ever think about how we’ve been lying to your family about our relationship for the past three years?” Fitz asks the next morning as they wash dishes after breakfast.

Jemma scrunches her nose. “Are we still fake dating? Because I seem to recall you reciprocating my confession of love. It was like, this whole…” She waves her hand loosely in the air, as though trying to beckon the right word. “... thing.”

Fitz flicks some soapy water at her face. “Not that part, obviously. Just the parts about how long we’ve been dating and how we started dating and how many pets we have and our actual plans for the future…all that stuff.”

Jemma gently elbows his rib. “Is this about what Aunt Vivian said about the wedding? Because you know it doesn’t matter, right? It’s not like she gets to hold you to an offhand comment you made years ago.”

“I know.” He must not sound very convincing because Jemma elbows him again. “I do,” he insists. “Just...do you ever think about coming clean to your family?”

Jemma frowns. “What would be the point in that?”

Fitz shrugs. “I don’t know. Honesty and shit.”

Jemma wipes off her hand on a dish towel and turns to wrap her arms around Fitz, tucking her head into his chest. “You know, it might be helpful if you just tell me about whatever crisis you’re having instead of talking around it. I’d like to help, if I can.”

Fitz sighs. “Fine. Just...don’t make fun of me?”

“Only if you deserve it,” Jemma promises.

Fitz looks around the kitchen. “We should sit on the couch.” 

Jemma pulls back, a look of alarm on her face. “Wow, is it really that bad?”

“Not bad, just...important.”

Once they’re sitting on the sofa, their sides turned so they’re facing each other, Fitz takes Jemma’s hands in his, looking down at where his fingers play with hers. “So I want to marry you,” he starts.

Jemma’s eyebrows shoot up. “Are you proposing?”

Fitz’s face scrunches. “This is less of a proposal and more of a statement of intent.”

Jemma nods in understanding. “Well, I’m not seeing the crisis so far. You know I want to marry you too, right?”

Fitz does know, but it still makes his insides warm to hear her say it out loud. He looks up at her face with a dopey smile. “I know. Just...I think your whole family is expecting it to happen on a specific day, which I’m not necessarily opposed to, but I’m worried that if we do it on that day, it’s kind of like it would be a fake wedding.”

Jemma’s eyebrows wrinkle in confusion. “I don’t follow,” she admits.

“Because we weren’t actually in a relationship when I said that. I was just trolling your family.”

Jemma grins. “I know. It was hilarious.”

“But your family likes me and I like that they like me and I want to be a part of your family and I don’t want to let them down.”

Jemma brings a hand up to Fitz’s cheek and leans forward to press a soft kiss to his lips. “My family loves you,” she tells him. “But it has nothing to do with whatever stories you told them about our relationship. Its all for the same reasons I love you. It’s because they can see that you are kind and funny and dependable and brilliant and you make me happy. That’s why they love you. Those are the things that matter, not whether or not you follow through on throwing a fancy party for us. Which, by the way, does not fall solely on you. It’s _our_ wedding. I’m a part of it too.”

Fitz reaches up to hold her arm, his thumb stroking over the tissue-thin skin covering her wrist. “So what _are_ your thoughts on getting married on February 29?”

Jemma shrugs. “It’s not a lot of time to throw together a wedding, but I’m not opposed to it. It probably wouldn’t be Pinterest perfect, but if all we want is to get married, we could probably make it happen.”

“Are the details important to you?” Fitz asks, bringing their hands down to his lap. “I mean, under ideal circumstances, what would you want our wedding to look like?” 

Jemma pauses to consider the question, which he appreciates. Weddings are important to most people. He wouldn’t want her to just agree to whatever he wants just to appease his neurotic need to please her family.

“I mean, I haven’t thought that much about it - what?” Jemma laughs at the skeptical look in Fitz’s face. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“ _You_? Haven’t thought about it? Ms. I-excel-at-preparation?”

“That’s _Doctor_ I-excel-at-preparation, thank you very much.” Jemma sticks out her tongue at him. “It seemed pointless to plan based on just my preferences when so much depends on you as well, or when our parents might be able to take time off to come here. I mean, that part I just took for granted. That we would have it here - it just makes more sense for our parents to come to us than for us to plan it long-distance.”

“Did you want something big?” Fitz asks.

Jemma bites the corner of her lip. “I mean, big in the sense that I’d want our family and friends there, but I wouldn’t necessarily want anything elaborate. I think I’d prefer something simple.”

Fitz nods slowly. “Yeah. I like that.”

“Honestly, I’d be okay with anything as long as we’re married at the end.”

Fitz smiles at her. “I like the sound of that. Us. Married.”

Jemma smiles back. “Me too.”

Fitz closes the gap between them to kiss her, long and slow and deep. He pulls away to rest his forehead on hers. “Will you marry me?”

Jemma huffs out a small laugh. “Is this the proposal?”

“Yeah, this is the proposal.”

Jemma kisses him once more. “Yes. Let’s get married.”

*

_December 5, 2019_

Their friends, predictably, are thrilled for them, if not particularly surprised.

“Wait.” Hunter looks at Mack. “They weren’t already engaged?”

Daisy raises her hand. “I call dibs on the bachelorette party!”

“No strippers,” Jemma says immediately.

“Right.” Daisy winks. “No strippers.”

“I’m serious.”

“I hear you.” Daisy winks again. “Loud and clear.”

“Why do you keep doing that with your eye?” Fitz asks, frowning.

“Do you have a date set?” Bobbi asks, steering the conversation away from potential strippers.

“February 29.”

Everyone goes quiet. “As in...three months from now?” Bobbi asks.

Fitz knew his friends would have opinions, but he decides to play dumb anyways. He’s curious to see how they approach it. “Yes. Why?”

Bobbi and Daisy exchange looks of alarm. “Do you have a venue booked?” Daisy asks.

“Um.” Fitz glances at Jemma.

“That part has been a bit difficult,” Jemma admits.

“That doesn’t seem like a lot of time to plan a wedding. What’s the rush?” Bobbi asks.

“Oh my God!” Daisy shouts, leaping to her feet. “Oh my God! You’re pregnant!”

Beer sprays from Fitz’s mouth. Everyone turns to stare at a bewildered Jemma. Hunter reaches over and yanks Jemma’s beer out of her hand.

“Hey!” Jemma protests. “I was drinking that!”

Fitz waves his hands in front of him. “We’re not pregnant!” 

“We?” Jemma echoes, turning to scowl at Fitz.

“You!” Fitz quickly corrects himself. “She. She is not pregnant.” He pauses, turning to inspect Jemma’s stomach, suddenly unsure. “Wait. Are you?”

Jemma swats his arm. “No!” She turns to the table. “It’s the anniversary of the day we met.”

Daisy frowns. “No, it’s not. You met on the first day of freshman year.”

Jemma swats Daisy’s arm. “Shush.”

“I was there,” Daisy reminds her. “Like literally sitting right next to you while you went on about how annoying it was that someone so rude had such a nice ass.”

Fitz grins, delighted. “Aw, you were objectifying me!”

Jemma rolls her eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

“I don’t remember anything significant happening in February,” Daisy muses. “I mean, I feel like I would remember, considering that Simmons did not shut up about him ever. She would go on and on - ”

“Okay, fine!” Jemma interrupts before Daisy can go any further. She points at Fitz. “It was his idea.”

“It was his idea to get you to incessantly complain about him?” Mack asks.<\p>

“I told her family that’s when we were getting married, but I forgot because it was like three years ago. How was I supposed to remember that?” Fitz complains.

Silence falls across the table again. Daisy and Bobbi turn to look at each other. “I’ll get the shots,” Daisy sighs, sliding out of her seat.

“What? Why?” Jemma protests.

Bobbi looks at her pityingly. “You’re scrambling to pull together a wedding so you can get married on your fake anniversary.”

Jemma turns to look at Fitz. Fitz just shrugs. Jemma sighs. “Yeah, that’s fair.”

*

_January 21, 2020_

Fitz has always been neat and organized, but Jemma’s organizational skills are on another level. Any big task, whether it’s packing a suitcase for a trip or planning a wedding, gets broken down into itemized actions to check off, with timelines and due dates attached. She prepares for all possible outcomes, making contingency plans for her contingency plans. 

So Fitz is understandably a bit slow on the uptake when Jemma says, in the middle of picking up their marriage license at City Hall, “Let’s get married.”

Fitz blinks, baffled. “Um, yeah. I thought we were? That’s what this is for,” he says, gesturing towards their marriage license.

Jemma rolls her eyes, as though _he’s_ the one who’s being confusing. “I mean _right now_.” She nods over his shoulder, and he turns to see couples waiting outside the officiant’s door for their turn to get hitched.

“But what about-“

“I know, it’s just -“ Jemma grabs Fitz’s hand. “I know I said I didn’t care, and that’s true, but at the same time, I want something that’s just for us.”

Fitz understands where she’s coming from, he truly does, but. “But we already sent out the invitations - how are we going to explain that we’re canceling it?”

“Why would we - we’re not -“ Jemma pauses to get her words straight before continuing. “You know how first we fake-dated for my family and then we real-dated? This is just the other way around. First we get real-married and then we get fake-married for my family.”

Fitz glances at the couples waiting their turns to get married. “So we do both?”

Jemma nods. “This wedding is for us, and February 29 is for them. And that way we get to do what we always do with them.”

Understanding slowly dawns on Fitz. “Troll them?”

Jemma grins. “Troll them,” she agrees. Her smile softens, and she looks at him with something akin to adoration. “Besides, I’d rather be married to you as soon as possible. I don’t want to wait.”

Fitz leans over and kissed her temple. “Yeah,” he agrees. “Why wait?”

The thing about getting spontaneously married is that Fitz doesn’t have much time to prepare his vows. They could always use the traditional, scripted ones, of course, but if this wedding is for them, he wants the vows to be his own.

While they wait for Daisy to arrive with their outfits and flowers and rings, Fitz opens his Notes on his phone and tries to compose his thoughts. There’s so much he wants to say - his thumbs should be flying across the screen in an effort to keep up with his mind. But instead, his screen just remains blank.

When Daisy arrives, he changes into the suit she brought for him, attempts to tame his hair in the washroom, and panics all the while.

And when it’s their turn to stand in front of the officiant, Fitz looks at Jemma standing in front of him, with her pale blue dress and grocery store bouquet, and he can’t hear a word the officiant is saying because all he can focus on is how much he loves Jemma Anne Simmons.

Fitz wants to tell her that he doesn’t know how he contains the enormity of his feelings for her. He wants to tell her that when they’re facing each other in bed with their cheeks on the same pillow, he feels like the love for her he holds inside might explode into a mess of sugary sticky goo, like a marshmallow inside a microwave. 

He wants to tell her that he admired and respected her from the very beginning. He wants to tell her that very early into their acquaintanceship, he fancied himself in love with her, but hesitated to label his feelings because the word seemed too heavy, too important, to use for what was probably just a crush or infatuation. And he wants to tell her that now he hesitates to use the word because it doesn’t seem strong enough for what he feels for her.

He wants to tell her that she is his best friend in the world. He wants to tell her that she is brilliant and beautiful and funny and strong and just _good_ \- like, a good person who is ethical and acts on her values. He wants to tell her that he loves how she feels things so deeply, and that even though she feels like she needs to lock those feelings away, he doesn’t want her to because he wants to know every part of her so that he can love every part of her.

He wants to tell her that she is a force stronger than gravity, and that falling was inevitable.

So he does.

*

_March 1, 2020_

Fitz wakes to the sun shining through the window, a faint hangover, and a warm impression in the mattress where Jemma is supposed to be. Disappointed, he throws off his blankets and half-rolls, half-falls out of bed, hoping that Jemma left bed for a good reason, like to make them something caffeinated.

Fitz stops in his tracks, mid-yawn, in the doorway to the kitchen. “Is that cake?”

Jemma doesn’t even pretend to look guilty. “Yep. Want some?”

Fitz raises his eyebrows. “For breakfast? Who are you and what have you done with my wife?”

Jemma shrugs. “It’s a special occasion.”

Fitz smiles, delighted. “Well. When you put it that way.” He grabs a plate and a fork. 

Jemma sips from her giant coffee mug as she watches Fitz serve himself a generous slice of wedding cake. “Did you have fun last night?”

Fitz’s grin goes goofy. “Yeah. I didn’t think it was possible to have so much fun at a wedding.”

“Did you see Aunt Vivian’s face during Daisy’s speech?”

Fitz can’t help but laugh. “Yes! I can only imagine what her face was doing when Hunter started reciting the Princess Bride wedding speech during the ceremony.” 

“Or when Bobbi lost the rings?” Jemma reminds him. 

Fitz shakes his head, amused. “She probably thinks our marriage is cursed.”

“I wouldn’t go that far. Everyone’s been rooting for us.” Jemma reaches across the table and places her hand on his. “They knew we were inevitable.  
  



End file.
